The Glass Cannon Podcast - Giantslayer Episode 102 - Spike Drop

Episode Date: May 9, 2017

With Della's fate lying precariously in the hands of Sir Will, the party is forced to make some major decisions on how to move forward. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit glasscannonnetwork.com. To become an official member of the Naish, subscribe today at http://www.jointhenaish.com. Want to be a part of Glass Cannon Nation? Follow us at twitter.com/glasscannonpod instagram.com/theglasscannon facebook.com/glasscannonnetwork tiktok.com/@glasscannonnetwork Get the best apparel and gaming accessories in the biz at https://glasscannonnetwork.com/store If you enjoyed this, we have several other series featuring Call of Cthulhu - Time For Chaos Delta Green - Get in the Trunk Pathfinder 2E - Glass Cannon Live! Strange Aeons Pathfinder 1E - Legacy of the Ancients Traveller - Voyagers of the Jump and so much more! Join us every Thursday night for Campaign Two of The Glass Cannon Podcast – a playthrough of the Pathfinder 2E Gatewalkers Adventure Path! Videos premiere on YouTube Thursday nights at 8PM ET with a companion podcast available at midnight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Order up for Damien. Hey, how did your doctor's appointment go, by the way? Did you ask about Rebelsis? Actually, I'm seeing my doctor later today. Did you say Rebelsis? My dad's been talking about Rebelsis. Rebelsis? Really? Yeah, he says it's a pill that's...

That's right! Did you know it's also covered by most private insurance plans? Well, I'll definitely be asking my doctor if Rebelsis is right for me. Rebelsis. Ask your doctor or visit Rebelsis.ca. Order up for Rebelsis. This week on the Glass Cannon Podcast, Sir Will is not himself. As he sees Della laying there, her hair just kind of like blowing in the wind, he stops for a second and then you see this wash over his face, and it looks like he is

a different person. As Della's life hangs in the balance, his face cringes up into this look of disgust and just hatred, and he slowly pulls out the sword. But danger still surrounds the party. You hear the sound of a bear. A bear? Flanked by two stone giants. And there's no way out.

Oh my god, Will. The adventure continues now. Hey everybody, this is Not Skid, and I am not here to not welcome you to Episode 102 of the Not to Glass Cannon podcast. I almost got through that with a straight face. I'm so sorry for trying to trick you. I am actually Skid, and I am here to welcome you to Episode 102 of the Glass Cannon podcast. Don't have a lot of business this week, although we do have a new series of artwork that are being done by our friend, the consummate comic book professional Robert Atkins. You may have seen his work, my Nestor portrait that I've spoken so highly of.

He's doing more. He's doing all of us, and those are going to be available to patreon donors at the $10 tier if you want to get a look at those it's well worth the investment we think along with all the other goodies that you get also wanted to let everybody know that i just finished recording a great conversation with jason sansbury of the drift podcast that's at out in the drift on twitter about paizo's new upcoming sci-fi themed role-playing game, Starfinder. Just had a great time talking to him about role-playing in general and sci-fi and what we think about the game itself based on what we know. And that should be out the last week of May.

So we'll be sure to make an announcement on that on Twitter and Facebook. Take a listen to that if you get the chance. an announcement on that on Twitter and Facebook. Take a listen to that if you get the chance. But in the meantime, please, let's enjoy together episode 102 of the Glass Cannon Podcast, Spike Drop. I was waiting last week, like, thinking to myself, it's time to roll out that breath attack and Les Barron can do some signif damage to get this dragon below 25 because

i'm more than happy to follow the book and have it get out of there before 25 but the whole time i'm thinking of myself as i'm always thinking of myself as i'm i'm watching the clock like what the hell is the cliffhanger gonna be it's gonna be like and you find treasure we'll see you next week never done that before it's just so lame i was thinking of myself what the hell am i gonna do and then i look over at this crazy irishman crazier than and i'm looking at you and just past you is the tv that we have the map on looking at it and i'm thinking like no one else can see this going down.

That's why I didn't. Nestor, Baron are all behind that wall. All behind the rubble. And Sir Will goes over there and I was like, got my cliffhanger! And then I was also like

why didn't Della use the Drake Spain horn? To be fair, the only time I got to act was the time I acted before you brought me to an unconscious. Very curious move. It's also in the bag of holding. Della's part. It's in the bag of holding. Ah, it sure is.

Yep. She also did 68 points of damage on her turn, which she actually did do. And then you hit me with six attacks. How many did it take before you knocked me unconscious? Very courageous. And how am I rewarded? How am I to be rewarded? That's what I want to know.

That's what everybody wants to know, how you are to be rewarded. So take me back, Joe. Take me back, because I have nothing bullshit to talk about up top besides this. Take us back to when the fans liked you. You walk over there and... It's been a long, long time, Matthew. The glaze goes over your eyes.

A different Sir Will comes into view. Del, of course, unconscious, doesn't see this change in visage, but I can see it. I can see the camera panning around, wind blowing his beautiful blonde hair.

And he's just staring down at Della, and he pulls out... Rose light. Rose light. What happens next? Well, before I say, I just want just make it clear what I said last week and what is seen.

Because it isn't this... I don't want it to appear to be this desperate look of revenge or something like that. This is not where Sir Will is standing. He gets off of Lexington, and you can see it's the same Will, the same rush to help someone, an ally, who has been hurt

badly. And he gets off, clang, hits the ground, his armor clanking as he gets off Lexington, and as he sees Della laying there, her hair just kind of blowing in the wind, he stops for a second. And then you see this wash over his face, and it looks like he is a different person. Like he just, his face cringes up into this look of disgust and just hatred.

And he slowly pulls out the sword and leans down and then snaps out of it and this look passes away and he doesn't remember it like he just gets off of lexington and he's looking at his sword standing over della and he just drops the sword out of his hand clank clang it hits the ground he lost a few seconds like he doesn't know what happened and he looks around to see if anybody saw it nobody saw anything and he gets down to try to tend to della's wounds oh someone saw it lexington saw it you're gonna have to explain it to him oh that's it's interesting you bring that up matthew i actually thought about that um so you like talk his head do a heel check yes yeah so he does a heel check god damn it natural three like i mean i'm just

gonna say he does a successful heel she was stabilized but now the wound is open up again. In a ten round, she died. So he quickly, when he sees that she's stable, he really quickly grabs the sword and sheathes it and is like really freaked out, very scared of what happened. He doesn't know. He felt a strange feeling, strange presence, and then nothing. And you hear the clang, clang, clang, clang, clang,

you guys on the other side of the wall. Baron walks around the corner and says Oh my god, Will. Will, how's Della? How's she doing? She appears to be stabilized, Sheriff. There's no, there's nothing to fear for the moment. Alright, well, I'm out of

my divine powers for the day, but I pulls out the wand and wands Della. Okay. Seven points of healing. Excellent. Della... Is it dead?

And Will is feeling like super, super guilty. Like, incredible crushing guilt. And he's kind of shaking. And he's like, Della and he's like adela you're right is everything okay and uh and when he sees her kind of come awake he's like no the dragon fled you're okay now you'll be all right now he seems to be kind of overcompensating almost and even with uh sir will's lack of paladin powers and his you know not fall from grace but close to it

um something seems unusual to Baron, so he wants to roll Sense Motive to see why Sir Will's acting so silly. Sure. Doesn't know 12. Yeah, that was a tough battle. He just stared death in the face and death of all his allies in the face. Yeah, he just seems shooken up. He's a little, yeah, stretched a bit too thin.

Like too little butter over too much toast. He nailed that line, huh, Skip? Yeah, really, he paraphrased the shit out of that line. I believe it was verbatim. So, yeah, I mean, you come up here, obviously metagaming-wise, I'm sure more than half the room, if not all the room, knew that there was a good chance of a dragon fight here. But you went in, and boom, breath weapon knocks three guys out of the fight. They retreat around the wall. stands in the face of it, and lands. Boom! Almost, like, inches away from getting under its scales and doing, like, even greater critical damage.

Still lays it out with 64, and it was that hit that allowed this encounter to be a runaway, essentially, because then Baron was fine. Because Nestor and Sir Will could not hit its AC. Did no damage. I didn't, yeah. Luckily, Baron just, boom, boom, boom, boom,

and Baron could get it within range. Della goes down. Starts bleeding out out Sir Will comes around Charges Nothing Not even close Thought he did Thought he really nailed it

But he's Fighting a dragon Then the thing just 27 was not even close Give me a break It was pretty close But you know Images of your family

That you never met Just the idea that This is a creature like this was the creature. Was it a red dragon that killed your parents? Or you don't know the color? I don't know the color. Chromatic. It then goes bite, claw, claw, tail slap, and luckily the wings miss.

Which was just enough to get you time to get the hell out of there. Draw it towards Baron and Umlo. Umlo is trying his best. Baron lays it out so that it whips around, talking to someone along the way and flies off. Now, is it speaking Draconic or is it speaking Common when we hear it? Or Giantish. Does anybody speak Draconic? Della. But she didn't hear anything. And I believe Sir Will does. I have to look that up Oh no he does not

He does not speak Draconic Well Does Umlo speak Draconic? I don't think he does Well I will say It was speaking in common It was like garbled Common and Draconic

Right but So we heard something General gist Like a pigeon Of common and Draconic It was going garbled common and draconic. Right, so we heard something about... General gist. Like a pigeon of common and draconic. It was going in and out like it was under some sort of duress. So it seems like he might have some sort of whisper or scrying or some sort of distant communication spell. And we've already seen...

This is the same dragon we saw land in episode 100? Was that it? You did not see that dragon. Oh. The people downstairs? The people downstairs have seen it. The other characters that we may or may not have seen. You would have to ask them. Why don't you ask Orphus?

Okay. Della is very badly heard, even with, I just did not give myself a couple wands and has no spells yeah Nestor and Omlor both also in pretty rough shape and you have Aram

and Ymir Shinerman you have an old man who you haven't quite introduced yourself yet because he's still coming to you have Lork who has no feet, and a wild gnomish creature. And a hoard of treasure. And you've left bodies throughout the tower.

Yeah. And you've got maps and scrolls, hoard of treasure, books and stuff to look at. What the hell are you guys going to do? How do you get out of this situation without letting people know that you've been there? I mean, it's impossible. The same way everyone puts their pants on Troy one leg at a time.

First we look at the treasure, then we talk to the people, we consult the maps, and we find a place to rest. Yeah, Sir Will is going to point out that it said that it was warning someone of our arrival. We must act with haste. We must flee from this exposed perch. So let's grab the treasure. I was going to tell her points faintly at the treasure.

Without even examining it, though. No spellcraft checks. We just grab it. We throw it. We take it all and let them see it. Is it grabbable? It's a lot of stuff. Shove it in the bag, kill it later.

Shields, shortbows, weapons. One, two, three, four, five poisons. A couple scrolls. Amulets. Ceremonial masks. Carvings. Pearls. And a lot of coin.

It's a lot of stuff. But, I mean, you could throw it all in the bag. Yeah, we'll deal with it later. We'll sort through it later, yeah. That bag is filling up. But, yeah, you could just throw it in the bag. Throw it in the bag. Bag, bag, bag, bag, bag, bag, bag.

You see that Drake's Bane horn poking out, you shove it back in. Who needs that? Thing weighed seven pounds. Yeah. Yeah. It's heavy. And you're just standing up here, still being buffeted by wings,

blood spatters all over the place. Some of the dragons, mostly your own. Your skin singed from this. I mean, for those of you that haven't had magical healing, I have to imagine your skin is burnt in places. And you've got now five other people, or four and a half, that you've got to figure out what you want to do with.

We were talking off air. We do have this thing we found. We got a couple episodes back. The spike of safe passage. Iron spike of safe passage. Ah, the iron spike of safe passage. And what does that do again? You pound it into the ground

and it creates an illusion of a hill or a pile of rubble or barrels, like whatever's appropriate to where you are that you can hide within. And unless somebody interacts with it,

it just looks like part of the landscape. Until the spike is pulled up again. Exactly. And what's the radius? Can you fit enough people in there? 15 feet high, 15 foot diameter. So, yeah.

It'd be tight. That's enough for everyone. Tight quarters to pile. So what would be the plan? Lork? Poor Lork. Pembroke? You haven't met yet.

Aram? Yamir? And then... Poor Lorc. Pembroke, who you haven't met yet. Aram, Ymir, and then that's going to be pretty tight quarters, and you still have that other creature. Yeah, Razzmatazz doesn't take up much space. It's true. He is a feral killing machine. He seems a perfectly peaceful creature. I'm going to suggest that were we to use that spike, the place that would be least likely to be interacted with might be nearby where the chained up monster was using the restroom. Towards the bottom of the tower.

I mean, I would think more people would come in through there than up here, for example. Nobody's going to come up here. Except that's where we're last seen. Right, but if we look like a stone, you know, there's a bunch of broken rubble up here. Dragons and high-level people are typically good at perception and detecting magical things. and detecting magical things. Whereas I think being next, or we go outside, but I think being next to something as undesirable as a poo shoot would, you know.

But it's on the ground. But there's going to be traffic going through the gardens. Yeah, someone has to come and take care of that thing, feed that thing, that guy. So someone's going to check on it. Someone's going to come at some point, maybe look for the Oculus. I was going to say the Oculus. Maybe look for Rotter Blood Freckle. Maybe look for Tharg. Maybe look was going to say the oculus. Maybe look for Rotter Bloodfreckle. Maybe look for Tharg. Maybe look for Surag and the Rucks.

Yeah, so I mean if you don't want to stay. Someone is sleeping in that room with the bearskin rug and the three chests. That's someone's quarters as far as you know. Yeah, so if we're not going to stay up here, I say we go find some ground outside up near the rocks and just post up there. The other thing to think about here is we've got to carry L, and just post up there. The other thing to think about here is we've got to carry Lork wherever we end up going. So maybe up here is probably the best bet, at least for now. Well, the only question I have, Troy, if it's not written in there, you can't add them,

but are there survival checks involved with staying in this cold area for a prolonged period of time? If you were to come up here, you could easily put them behind one of the walls to be safe from the winds. Leave them with rations and whatnot. And as long as no one interacts with that space... And we could actually build a shelter within the illusion.

Yeah, that's a good point too. So you can do your best for them. They see through the illusion and it's a good point too so you can do you can do your best for them so they they see through the illusion it's a nice lean to cozy lean to me i just think because this is so less trafficked and we'll do whatever you guys want but uh the dragon or whoever else comes up here will notice differences more than some place that has if he. If he even comes back. I mean, his treasure is going to be gone. Sure. I like it.

I like it for several reasons. Not just safety, but just coolness. We're making our home base on the top of a tower in the clouds. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty sweet. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the only real difficulty is we'll be able to just come back up and down here at will? It's a fourth floor walk-up. Yeah, yeah.

Sucks. It's true. I have a new cathedral. It's okay. I can't believe we're staying at Troy's house. It's a little bit of a fixer-upper. There's an Etten doorman. So you guys go back downstairs

to the room with the cages. Stand at the top, listen down. You don't hear any movement or anything, so you can safely go down into it. And it's the same scene. All right. They see you come down, and you all look like you just got into a 10-round boxing match.

Sir Willow come down and say, those of you that can walk, we're going to go to the upper ramparts of the tower. We have a spell that will allow us to rest up there in relative safety for you. And he sort of trots

Lexington over and gets off of Lexington in front of Lork. He leans down and he says, For you, we will find a way to move you. Fear not. I am Sir William Keswick, son of Emmett, Earl of Highbury. What is your name, sir?

I'm Lork Irontusk. I didn't mean to get into this, really. I just wanted to introduce i just want to introduce the whole conversation i'm really in terrible pain oh okay so uh he's going to uh sir will will help whoever can walk because he's not gonna be able to lift lork to uh you know be like almost a cane basically they can lean on his shoulders as he's armored, and it'll walk them up the stairs. How much does footless, emaciated Lork weigh at this point?

Because I can carry a lot of stuff unencumbered, and I can move at my normal speed. You can carry Lork fine. I'll carry Lork and fireman's carry. The two younger men, the Shunem andann sons, can move under their own power. And Della will go help Pembroke. Yeah, Della will contend to Pembroke. I'm Della Narn, by the way.

And... I'm Pembroke, just Pembroke. Usually a man of your knowledge and intellect has an eponym. I did once. I'm afraid it's fallen away, sloughed off.

And the two young men say, and what a father. That is our father in that cage. He perished here, the older boy says. And the younger one says, we can't just leave him here. We've seen what they do.

We've felt what they do to people here. I know he could no longer feel pain, but I can't just leave him here to be burnt as an offering to their false god. What would your father want you to do? Live or die? He would want you to do? Live or die? He would want us to live. Your father's remains would serve a better tribute to his life

if they contributed to your continued existence. If his remains stay here, they will think that we have fled downwards and escaped. Sorry, I thought you were suggesting we eat him. No. This is not the movie Alive. Umlo comes up. He's like, no.

And he looks to them and he's like, we could burn him and give you his ashes so that when you return to your homeland, you can inter him there. I agree. We should not leave his body here. It's an unholy place. Yeah, but, I mean, where are we going to burn a body? In the brazier, right here.

These braziers. Oh, right. Dump him in. Fair enough. And the sons sort of look to each other and talk, and they agree. I mean, that is like the best case scenario. They're not going to like,

throw him from the tower. That's how he wanted to die. Pulverize him by... What did gravity do to pulverizing? It gets rocks on the way down. Oh! Oh! May I ask, who do you worship?

We worship Abadar. We have not as strong a faith as our father, but we are worshipers of Abadar. I know no prayers of Abadar, but I'd be happy to

stand by, stand in vigil for a ceremony for your father. But we must make it quick. I think I know a few. Give me a few minutes to get my breath back. And they, um, I would say maybe Umlo, maybe Enlis Baron to help do this. The sons don't really want to pallbear.

And they do something to burn him and collect the ashes. And Pembroke does a blessing of Abadar. Yeah, yeah. Money, money, money, money! Money! It's very inappropriate. Money, money, money, money! Money!

It's very inappropriate. May he be carried to the afterlife on a river of coin. And they put these ashes of this man, the descendant of all the Shinermans, into a little glass jar to give to... They introduce themselves as Aram and Ymir. And they just hold it. They still have torn muscles on exposed wounds and whatnot, but they go upstairs with you guys.

Baron carrying Lork, Della and Sir Will, helping Pembroke along. And you guys are the last ones to come and Pembroke you see Razzmatazz in the cage and he is feral. I'll be back for you later. He's just

looking at you trying to like scratch out your eyes. It's very sad. So everyone, with the exception of Razzmatazz, go upstairs, put the spike into the ground. After you make a makeshift lean-to, and they just disappear from sight.

And if one of you wants to interact with it, you can touch it and see it, start to see the outline of it, but it is a great hiding space. Nice. Excellent. It's so cool. It's like a full-size version of the elven cloaks from Lord of the Rings.

Exactly. Exactly. I was going to say it's like a medieval Winnebago. Oh, that too. It's everything you need in here. So you guys set them up. Night is falling. Can we do a little

spell crafting before we go to bed? Well, where do you guys want to go? I don't think you want to spellcraft after you put them, the spike in the ground. Tell me what you want to do now. Night is falling. I mean, like, once we is falling. Am I confused? Are we not resting overnight inside

this thing? Yeah. All of you are resting? Yeah. 15 foot diameter. Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that. Okay, I thought you guys were leaving them there and you were going to rest. No, it's a 15 foot diameter. Oh, diameter? We can't. That's enough space.

You are three feet. Not for seven people. Several of our people are three and four feet tall. Matthew, do you want me to walk out a 15-foot radius to you? It's impossible. Listen, I have to be the one that represents all the small folk in the room, literally. You can fit in 15 feet of space. It will not be comfortable. No.

Certainly for the ones that are injured. All right, so you guys get ready and you rest down there I'm sure how's those wands doing you some of the shriveling folks they're sputtering I have 9 left

we have 37 out of 50 used on my cure light wounds so 13 left I'll let you guys wand up as much as you want after you heal throughout the night. Del will use a little infernal healing. Are we doing that crazy, crazy thing we talked about a while ago

about healing spells on resting doing max healing? No? Okay. I just thought I could not even try. That's a good try, Grant. I never talked about that. Do we do the spellcraft before we go to bed or when we wake up?

Up to you guys. Before we go to bed. We go to bed, and then if we fail, we can try to go to the fire. Do the amulets first. The potions could be healing potions. The healing stuff could be. We don't need to do the poisons.

I can touch of law six times, so if you have a good spellcraft, I can just touch of law you again. I'm plus ten. So touch of law against you. All right, so let's say Baron just is... You guys are tag-teaming this up here. Touch of law, touch of law, touch of law.

Let's just talk about the dragon horde, okay? You find a large spined shield. Large. A plus one light pick. Possibly something Nestor might be interested in. Not as cool as his, but it is a plus two short bow. Ooh. Interesting. That is interesting. A potion of delay poison. That's valuable. A potion of displacement. Interesting. Yeah.

Interesting, interesting. Something Della recognizes. Immediately, a potion of haste. Oh, good one. I know that smell. I imagine it has the similar coloring as the components that we don't track. She eschews materials. A scroll of blade barrier. Oh, cool.

Oh, cool. A scroll of charm monster. Oh. Oh, Della can use the scroll. Yeah, right? A scroll of hold monster. Oh. A scroll of summon Hold Monster. Oh. A scroll of Summon Monster 5.

Oh. Holy moly. Jackpot. A scroll of Wall of Force. Wow, that's cool, too. These are powerful. Yeah. In addition to those things, you find some non-magical items that appear to be of various worth.

A noble's outfit. Spears worthless. A copper amulet with garnet setting. A brightly painted clay ceremonial mask with bronze feathers and glittering blue sapphire eyes. Looks very expensive. A set of three lapis lazuli carvings of lucratas. Brings back strange memories as you hold them in your hands. A black pearl.

One black pearl. Baron's like, that's worth something. And then you find 180 platinum pieces. 1,240 gold pieces, 4,490 silver pieces, and 13,800 coppers. Oh, man. Is there a giant Walmart nearby?

I mean, yeah, you guys need to get to a town. Yeah. We have so much stuff in this bag. Good question, though. Is this Shinemon's fortune we're carrying right now because that would be kind of sad no it's not all right let's keep going we're gonna

the shield or the pick or the short bow anything special besides there's plus one plus two I mean I think sir will would like to take the plus two short bow oh are you ready would like to take the plus two short bow. So would Dulles. Oh, here's the roll-off. Are you ready

to roll? Roll, roll, roll. All right. Rolling off? I mean, you do have a plus three pearl of power. We could trade it. Just roll for it. Just roll for it. Just a straight D20? Straight D20.

Add your flanking bonus. 14. 16. All right, I'll trade the pearl of pikes. All right. All right, so. You get the plus two sword, buddy. Yeah, no, seriously. Sir Will is going to walk over with it and be like,

Del, I took this because I was afraid of your power, and I was worried of what harm you might do to us but seeing what you did to that dragon I know that you are here to help us in any way you can and I want you to know that I would I would never hurt you

and he hands it over to you and Della is very touched by this and removes the amulet of the dragon she says Iet of the dragon for amulet she says I before I the dragon took me down I

saw the look in your eyes I could tell you had a history with these and I think this would best be served around your neck because I know you would never hurt me ever and she gives you the dragon fire amulet. Awesome.

Thank you. She always comes back. Damn it, Grant. Della, do you have one chance before bed to try and learn a spell? Do we find what the DC is? No. So I believe it's DC 15 plus the spell's level. And what's the spell?

Lightning bolt? Yes, it's the third level spell, right? Yeah. So I believe it's DC 15 plus the spell's level. And what's the spell? Lightning Bolt? Yeah, so it's the third level spell, right? Yeah. So DC 18. So Della will appeal to Baron for a touch of law. If you think I didn't use them all. Oh, no! Nice.

All right. Here we go. So DC 18. DC 18. Spellcraft check to learn Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt.

18. Oh Bolt! 18. Natural 18. Wow. New Della. Lightning Bolt. She's a shock build. She really is. That's right up your alley. Lightning crashes and New Della cries. Alright, so you

go through all this equipment and then, you know, it's getting later into the night. You're trying to heal each other as best you can. You're trying to heal up these people that you just met, this old man, poor Lork, these two young men from Shinnerman's Fortune who got tied up in this mess. And you just see all these papers and everything, and I would think you guys want to go to bed as best you can. Yeah. And is there going to be a watch just in case someone tries to interact with the illusion? Sure.

Sounds like a good idea. Can you see out of the illusion? Is it like a one-way mirror? Why not? Okay. I rule yes. Okay. Lork will offer to take

the first watch. What else is he going to do? He's got a good perception. Lork's trying to contribute as best he can. Night falls. Everyone falls asleep. Immediately. Even though it's uncomfortable,

it's more comfortable than a cage for most of these people. And Nestor, Baron, Umla, Della, Battleweary, Sir Will as well. So Lork just kind of props himself up within arm's reach of someone he can shake if he were to see something. And a couple hours in. Barron specifically. Roll a perception check. Lork. 31. 31.

You hear a sound of a bear. A bear? A bear? Padding up the stairs from down below. You see a bear come up, flanked by two stone giants. They're just looking around. And the bear is like...

You see it sniffing. Looking. Looking around. Starts walking towards the illusion. He's going to start... He's going to wake up Baron. Just silently. So, Baron, you feel a shake.

And you look over and Lork is like, hand to his mouth. And you see a bear is coming up towards where the broken wall is and the stone giants are speaking to each other in giant curious they see blood everywhere but no bodies

and the bear is like inching ever closer to where you guys are and the stone giants come over and say something that baron would understand to be like there's nothing there's no fresh meat up here you're smelling the battle of the intruders let's go. We must report this. And they walk back downstairs. Oh, man. My heart was in my throat. And, you know, watches pass.

People wake up, take turns, and eventually the sun begins to rise, and it's through all the tragedy and horror and battles and whatnot the sun rises and you can see it even though the thing looks out mostly north it's open to the east as well and so you can see the sun rising over the mountaintops and it's as usual strangely beautiful amidst all this awfulness. And despite everything you've been through,

you feel invigorated as Baron, Della, Nestor, and Sir Will and Umlo level up.

Oh! Wow! Yes! Oh my god. So the four of you will be level nine. And Umlo will be level eight. Wow. Alright, it's been I think 50 episodes since you guys leveled up. Is that accurate?

It's been a while. Feels long. I'm low. I feel like levels up all the time. So nothing really new with the ums. But let's talk powers briefly. Matthew, I don't care about your reflex save. I don't care that you put a point into sense motive.

I want to know interesting new things about, I'm so terrified of this already, a ninth level Della? Phew. 9th level. Or 8th level Magus. 8th level Magus. Did you go Magus or Bard?

I went Magus. I wanted to go Bard, but 2nd level Bard just... The stuff is just not that interesting. That's the tough thing about multi-class, and you want to get through those early levels fast, but you've got to burn a level trying to get to that 3rd, 4th, 5th level Bard. All right, so what does that eighth level Magus get? Two attacks.

Yeah, that's the big one. Looks like somebody's going to be confirming fumbles. Okay, two attacks. Two attacks. I got a new feat. I did. Give him the lork. There has been no shortage of feat puns all over Reddit and Facebook.

So Della took the feat Shadow Walker. Shadow Walker. So basically, Fetchlings, when they reach 9th level, can use this ability, which is called... I have to look it up. Shadow Walk. Ah. Which... What you just said.

Makes sense. So Shadow Walk Shadow Walk you basically like You If you're in an area Of shadow or low light You can kind of Merge on the With the borders

Of the shadow plane And you can travel Along there And you travel like 50 miles per hour Or something ridiculous In the material plane Right

But it's very unpredictable Because you can't really See what's going on In the material plane Can't see the terrain Around you Yeah That's cool

And you can take people with you? No, it's just because it's a fetchling spell-like ability. It's myself only. The spell actually you can. So it's dangerous. It's not... You told me you were going to take this and it's not in the...

It says in the description of the spell it's not good for scouting and spying because it's dangerous knowing where you're going to end up. But if you want to get... It's like 1d10 times 100 feet. Right, but if you want to get like... You could have said guys, let me check out the cathedral and just shadow walked from the gate

where the Ettin and the Smilodons were up to there and hoped that you landed somewhere near the cathedral. But you could have ended up in the fighting pits. So with this feat demand with this feat shadow walker you can use that shadow walk spell like ability as a fetchling as a special fetchling feat as dimension door oh and skid once per day skid tell us about dimension door uh dimension door is basically uh it's a teleportation spell with a limited range, basically.

So it's very useful. She can hop around like a nightcrawler or some fucking shit. I just wanted to hear the nerdish drop. Nerd! It's time for some explaining for us. It is time for Nerdy! It was time for nerdy. It was.

Anything else cool, Matthew? Some cool spells, but you'll see them when they happen. Ah, good. Keep us interested. Keep us guessing. Baron, do we go gunslinger, inquisitor, rogue? Baron just wanted to keep the role-playing flavor right not min max okay so he is now a samurai i think you found all that eastern weapons so you're now switching from the gun

to those masterwork nunchucks yeah i mean i mean if you think about really not min max if you think about spaghetti westerns taking all their cues from Akira Kurosawa samurai films, it only makes sense to go backwards. So, no, I took Inquisitor. Okay. Nice. Awesome. Just going to keep weakening my character so Troy can kill him. And the big things that are different are that I took an extra feat of Quick Draw.

Ah, oh, good. That would have helped last combat. Yeah, it would have. And I also get Cunning Initiative. Ooh! Which allows me to add my Wisdom modifier. So my Initiative jumped up three points. So you add it instead of your dex or on top of your dex?

Additionally, my friend. That's cool. I go from plus nine to plus twelve decks. Do you get any extra judgments as a second level inquisitor? No, it's not until fourth level, which I'll be dead before that happens. But, you know, your judgment, the strength of that first judgment goes up.

I think some of them, like, instead of a plus one to AC, you get a plus two to AC. Right, they scale. Some of them you have to be, like, higher levels to get the plus two and then the plus three. But anyways, very cool. Last little ones. Detect any alignment at will. Track and, which is just a bonus to survival checks.

And my spell, my new spell I learned in leveling up is Shield of Faith. Shield of Faith. Classic. An old Galabras classic. Yeah. You gotta have Shield of Faith. You gotta. You gotta have it.

Which I believe also scales with Warhammer. You have that one always on deck. Always on deck. You never know. It's just so versatile. You should have played that when Sir Will was standing over Delin's lifeless body. You know, it draws a sword. Standing over Delin's lifeless body.

You know, it draws a sword. The great part is that neither Galabras nor Lork will ever dance again. Or Gormley. Galabras could dance. That is just a careless... He still has a will. I'm pulling your pessimism, Grant. Nestor Coyne, talk to me. Slayer?

Yeah, I took another level of Slayer. Why is he the only one that doesn't have to multi-class? That's so horrifying. I gave a character reason for never doing it. That's true, he did. I mean, it's just mechanically, just BAB goes up. Yeah, BAB goes up.

Extra, what else? I get an extra D6 on my sneak attack. Great. And I got a feat at this level um and i took a dazzling display oh my longbow so what happens is i take a round action to do an intimidating uh display of prowess with my weapon and i get an intimidate check to demoralize everyone within 30 feet. Yes! That's perfect for him. What also happened,

what I also took is for six levels I've been taking one-sixth of the slayer talent from my favorite class bonus. So smart! So this is the, so I get a, I also get another slayer talent at this level and I took shatter defenses. Oh, what is that?

Which, if I hit an opponent with whatever weapon I chose, my longbow in this case, who is demoralized, they are treated as flat-footed until the end of my next round. Oh. Sneak attack, sneak attack.

Wow, that is... It's so Nestor nester too it fits perfectly yeah that is cool that's the twofer that i've been i've been gunning for for quite a while so oh that's great yeah the only reason i saved you for last joe is because i honestly don't know what you're gonna pick you have no paladin powers so uh did you go samurai like what are you gonna do no i was thinking if i'm thinking one of two things for sir will's story which is redemption and full bloom paladin or uh full not redemption and anti-paladin route and i don't know which way he's gonna go yet so i want to take that paladin level because they all go anti-paladin level once you change but you cannot take a level in paladin when you're an ex-member ah which i didn't know so you not only do you lose the powers you cannot

take a level in the class so had you went anti-paladin you could take another level sure if i had done it already but uh yeah so i couldn't take that so i went i was like thinking about it and i was like you know i'm gonna go back to cavalier and then from a character standpoint i was like this is great because i'm realizing i've lost my connection with my deity but i've not lost my connection with highbury and that to me is like the basis for a lot of his cavalier abilities sure your honor however is a different story. Just ease down. I didn't interrupt your feed explanation.

I didn't try to kill your character. You pretty much did. But I basically went the cavalier route, and it's kind of exciting. It's kind of fun, which I never planned to do with this character. I planned to go full paladin. So at fourth level cavalier, I get expert trainer, which allows me to, and any of you guys, you know, when we go back, obviously, and find Della's dead horse, which is no way it's alive.

Reggie, yeah. Reggie, which has been tied up outside for weeks. which is no way it's alive reggie yeah reggie which has been tied up outside for weeks um expert trainer allows you to train mounts like multiple mounts at the same time in and very quickly for you or for anyone for anybody you can raise you can also raise the dc by five to train a mount in a day for what takes a week for everybody else oh wow that's cool this is kind of fun stuff but horse Whisperer. Exactly, exactly. And then the main thing that it does is it's a prerequisite for a feat,

which I took at ninth level, called Horse Master. What? Now, here's what happens in the morning. I take this feat, Horse Master, and it immediately makes Lexington equal to my character level. Oh, wow. Not my cavalier level. So when we think about Lexington seeing what went down, I'm probably going to need Skid's help with this. But I imagine Lexington advancing so quickly in level.

And I guess he can't really speak, but he's kind of like you know will you got to get your shit together like he basically takes control of the pairing to a certain extent you're gonna put a point in intelligence he said he suddenly becomes an eighth level wolf wow full-blown mount his hit points go through the roof. He... Well, I mean, technically, he gets plus eight strength, and he becomes a large wolf, but I went the alternate archetype route because Sir Will can't

ride him at that size. Right. So he gets a bonus to Dex and Khan. He doesn't grow bigger, but he grows much faster and just much more advanced. I mean, that's great for you to be especially faster. Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you say little doggy master. I heard you say horse master. faster at just much more advanced i mean that's great for you to be especially faster yeah so i'm sorry i didn't hear you say little doggy uh master i heard you say horse master yeah how is that fevered it's it's written for a mount okay all right all right for a mount you're the wolf master

right so what i want you to do with me because i didn't tell you about this is i want you to roll four levels of uh lexington hit points with me wow what are those are those, D4s? D8s. D8s, okay. So we can see how tough the new and improved Lexington is going to be. And the way we roll hit points, we usually do this between sessions. I told these guys to get ready, because you never know when level 9's going to come. And I roll

the hit die, and they roll the hit die, and we take the better one. Alright, so 5th level, Lexington. Three. Four. Damn it. Sorry, buddy.

All right. Damn. Six level, Lexington. Uh-oh. Eight. Two. There you go. Nice. Good one.

Good one, Lex. I rolled a D20. You're not helping? Eight. Five. Oh, my God. You should be happy with whatever you get here, then. Yeah, no, seriously.

Can't complain now. This is money in the bank. Seven. One. Oh, my God. All right, you should be happy with whatever you get here, then. Yeah, no, seriously. Can't complain now. This is money in the bank. Seven. One. Oh, my God. Lexington. Lexington just became OP. Yeah, literally, I feel like he just...

He went from 31 hit points to 84 hit points. Yeah. Wow. Because his con goes up with that bonus and everything, too. It's just an awesome feat. Sexy. Sexy. And now Troy will try to kill him at every chance oh he's

just gonna be a little harder to kill so i'll keep trying but uh yeah i mean and his ac is now 29 when he's in armor wow cool just ridiculous so y'all wake up invigorated feeling more powerful you know maybe that brush with death, although a failure, essentially, the creature got away, made you realize that you need to steal yourselves against this enemy. And so you wake up with these new powers. Lexington, even more powerful.

But as Lexington is getting stronger, he also begins itching. Oh, I forgot! I forgot! And now we're all sleeping in the same space! Itching! And then Della and Nestor see the itching, and they begin

itching as well. Oh, I completely forgot. For the entire day, you will have a minus two penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. At any point, you can spend a move action, scratching furiously at the bites, to remove those penalties just until the start of your next turn. So you can spend your move action to scratch, and then your standard action to fire once. Or cast a spell or something.

Cast a spell, whatever, without those minus two. Otherwise, minus two. This is genius. Is this a hero lap? I don't know. See if Etten's laser in there. Probably not. But you can just do an adjustment, minus two to everything. Lexington, Della, and Nestor, roll a DC 15 Fortitude save

to see if these are going to hatch again tomorrow. With the minus two. With the minus two. Well, can't you scratch? You can scratch before you roll. I'll scratch. Sure. Me too.

Get rid of some of those eggs. 15 exactly. 16. All right, so today is going to be a rough day. But tomorrow you won't have to worry about it. Oh, and then Lexington? The next day you will.

Lexington made it. Lexington made it. Alright. So even though I don't have to roll for eggs hatching tomorrow, I still have all that, right? Baron and Sir Will. Are they scheduled on another day? And Umlo won't have to worry about those eggs for a little while. Okay. Minus two to everything.

So yeah, just add that in adjustments in your hero lab. Guys, you're at the top of this tower. If anyone were to look over the edge, Sir Will, you came pretty close. It is probably a 600-foot drop to the bottom of the rock floor. I want to know, what the hell are you going to do? What is the plan right now? You have tons of documents

from that trophy room, but you have no plan of action. Talk to me. Is everybody completely clear on where we are in reference to where skid saw the speech or where um nestor saw the speech of the giant these towers are behind the lake that's what i thought it's a separate building building and the cliff face they're they're connected but you did not see

any the only doors you saw that you didn't go through were in that third room. There was a door. Where there was like a throne and the busts. Yeah. There was a door that led to a hallway where one of you heard like raucous behavior. Right. There was no door leading in. The only door that you saw leading into the cathedral itself was the door that Nestor peeked through. The main doors.

And then Della, when she was flying flying saw doors leading into a separate building on the north side of the cathedral so am I mistaken in that the two doors like the two ways that we can go are either through that door in the third tower from the throne room or back into the door that Nestor had gone into or straight in the front door or straight in the front door or cross through everything and go into that side building I mean mean, I think that this calls for personally, I think it calls for a Della scouting mission or Della Nestor scouting mission to see what would be safest.

A scout in the grounds? Or into the buildings? I just don't know. Whatever you think. I'm inclined to go into that side building. Walking straight into a sanctuary sounds like bad news bears into that side building i don't mean walking straight into a into a sanctuary sounds like bad news bears that side building is the one we kind of listened to the door at and

didn't go in right we heard a ruckus arguing and i think we opened the door and saw like a short hallway in another door right yeah okay yeah and we never went through that second door i mean baron we did the healing here uh fair Baron, your wand is gone It's gone And Della's wand is gone too We have no wands Della has a potion for Cure Light And you can cast Cure Light I can cast Cure Light twice

Sir Will has no potions and is at half of his hit points He used to be able to channel That was sweet Yeah, remember that? That was the bum But now I can train a mount in one day. Same thing. Please, same thing.

You know? Same difference. So, I mean, what do you guys want to do? I mean, so is our plan to leave the rest of our group up here under the cover of our spike? Yeah, I mean, this spike is permanent, right? Is it? Yeah, it's permanent until you pull it up. Okay, yeah.

So, yeah, I think we leave them here, resting here. Do we... So, let's take a step back for everyone who's listened. Because we had an epic four-hour 100 episode. Why did we come to Minderhall's Valley? And what is our objective while we're here? To stop the threat of giants? Expand upon that for me.

I think that our mission here is to take out whoever is organizing this area. And I think that that guy is the guy that Nestor saw giving that speech. Ur-a-thosh. Ur-a-thosh. And if there was a way to take him out when he's not in the middle of a meeting, that would be best. Surrounded by hundreds of giants. Exactly. So my fear in going down that hallway is that perhaps we go back, because this is such a huge kind of sandboxy map, that we go back into an earlier part of the map that we circumvented by going through the Pooh shoot.

Do you know what i mean like because we took kind of the circuitous route through the sewage gates and up this way that if we go down the hallway that way we're going to end up more towards the beginning of the map whereas even though the cathedral seems big and scary it seems more likely to be where urthash is yeah and i mean i my only argument for going in the cathedral is that they can't have meetings like that every day right that's my only argument for going in that way and that building is actually on the opposite side of the towers from where we came in doesn't it yeah that's how i imagine it anyway all right let's go so go go cathedral while we're feeling powerful quote-unquote powerful um sure well this is why i said scouting mission so if you guys can

scout and see if we still hear a lot of ruckus giants and then go scout the cathedral door and see if we hear anything in there we would have better intel before we made any commitments sure or if there's even any higher entrances. What kind of higher entrances are you talking about? Something we could scale to. That's a really high thing, right? Yeah. Or Della could just fly

into some fallen away roof parts. My question is, if we think we're going to if we're go if you know if we're Going to go if we think we're going to go take on the Big bad here Like is a scout is the Me bearing three spells to do a scouting mission

Really worth it no I Honestly don't think we're going for the big bad Here I just want to get more intel we Shouldn't walk blindly into anything well then Should we just spend a day Healing up more and looking at what we have? Yeah, that's actually a good idea. I mean, we have all that

paperwork. I mean, we should probably... Yeah, we could spend a day going through the maps. Yeah, that's a great idea. Resting. Yeah. They already came up here looking for us and didn't find us. They wouldn't suspect that we came back up here. Right, right. Okay. Yeah.

As far as they're concerned, this area should be clear. I think tactically that's a really good idea. Study those maps. And I'll do a flying mission when we know more after the maps. Well, if we're going to rest, you can do it whenever. Yeah, if we're going to spend the day, you could also go invisible. Do you need a wand to go invisible? No.

That's what I'm saying. I'll do the flying and the scouting today, but let's read the maps and see if there's any movements outside. You know what I mean? See. That's what I'm saying. I'll do the flying and the scouting today. But let's read the maps and see if we get... And see if there's any movements outside. You know what I mean? See if there's patrols coming in and out.

Did we find all of our... That's the second group of characters. Did we find all their equipment when we freed them? No. Right. So there's no spell book

for Pembroke. No spell book. There's no Gormstorn for Lork or his black arrow longbow or anything. No. All the gear is gone. So, yeah, Pembroke is complete.

He can't do anything. And his staff is gone, too. So there's absolutely nothing he can do. So we could look around for that, too. Right. All right. I say we take a day and examine these maps. Right.

Yeah. I agree with Nestle. And I think that it might be wise to, well, take a day while we're itching like crazy to just not get ourselves into any scrapes. Yeah. All right. So you're going to take the day to just go over this intel. Yeah. Hope for the best.

Hope that they don't come back up there and look for you, but you're still hidden. You just don't know how long you can stay in these close quarters and have it be good for everyone. Plus, the more time you spend, even though you've saved these prisoners, you have to imagine that the cathedral's on high alert.

Are they bringing in reinforcements? What is happening? Every moment you wait seems dangerous, but it is most likely better to be cautious, and that's what you've decided. We also have the horn. I don't know if we want to draw the dragon away, but if you blow the horn,

the dragon is compelled to go towards it. I don't know if we want to draw him to fight, finish him off, or draw him. Yeah, I would say no. It's just so cool, but the problem is that if they're on high alert, they know the prisoners are gone, so they're looking for us right now. Right. If they hear the horn,

it's not just the dragon that is going to come. Drakes all over the place. There'll be stone giants coming up the stairs. I mean, I'd love to see the reflex save for Lork with no feet, the two men from Shinermans, and Pembroke without any spells against the breath weapon. But if you want to blow the horn... I wasn't saying doing it here.

Great idea, Matthew. Nice job, Matthew. I'm going to draw them away by blowing the horn where we're all located in a 15-foot diameter. That makes sense. Where were you going to blow it? I'm curious. Where I flew to. George Patton over here.

Okay. So as much as I'd like to see the one-on-one fight between Della and the dragon, when you guys were in that trophy room, you saw ledgers, parchment, just to give you a refresher, rosters of giants that have been recruited into the army, logistics reports dealing with how to supply this ever-growing number of giants. You found drawings detail the surrounding region, including Minderhals Valley, which you already know where it is. And, most importantly, at first glance, the location of several giant strongholds in the mountains.

And the one that stood out the most was, of course, the very rudimentary drawing of a huge castle floating on a cloud. If you take the time to comb through the various documents and maps in this room, you find a few very important things. For one thing, you find Pembroke's spellbook. It's not something none of you

would have recognized. But Pembroke sees it immediately. And you start to learn about the Storm Tyrant's plans. First and foremost... I want to play some music here. ...is the revelation that Minderhall's Valley is just a recruiting station for Volstice's armies. Earthash has been evaluating the new conscripts here and sending the most promising recruits

to a frost giant village called Skirgard. Oh my god! For additional training. And one of the maps on the walls pinpoints the exact location of the training camp. I love adventure paths so much! Anybody have...

I guess you could do survival unless anyone has knowledge cartography. Geography? Geography, Geography. Sure, yeah. Pembroke certainly does. Della's going to do knowledge pool on it. Oh, this is so cool.

Pembroke's rolling. Yeah, this is great. Of course. Della doesn't know. 14. That was the incorrect. 18. Okay, so it's enough to know that it's probably between 100 and 200 miles somewhere to the south of the Mindspins.

Man. Secondly, you see scribblings written in giant, in a large hand. Anyone that reads giant, it seems ramblings of... She is obviously dedicated to Minderhall. That much is clear. But she has grown old, and her obsession with relighting the forge has produced no results.

I see her time ending. She is a mad woman. I will not go into the forge heart, but I await her death. That's all what it says. Yeah. So there's a she identified in the... She.

An unnamed she. An unnamed she, devoted to Minderhall, has grown useless, obsessed with the Forge Heart, not producing results. He will not... Obsessed with relighting the Forge, not producing results,

but that he will not go into the forge heart and just awaits her death. And we still have those fire crystals. Yeah, that's what the fire crystals are, I think. Do we think the oculus is too low level for this? I think so. Well, they weren't in the forge heart. This person is in the forge heart.

Yeah, Baron, you would know the forge heart is in the Forge Heart. Yeah, Baron, you would know the Forge Heart is beneath the Forge. And the Forge is here? Where is the Forge? You haven't seen a Forge. It was Minderhall's Forge. You would assume it would be in Minderhall's Valley. Right.

But you have not seen any trace. Well, wait, didn't... That's where Brander was going. Urthash, is that his name? What did you just say, Matthew? Brander wanted to strike the hammer of Ustroth on the Forge of Minderhall. That's where Brander was going. Urthash, is that his name? What did you just say, Matthew? Brander wanted to strike the hammer of Ustroth on the forge of Minderhall. That's right. Correct.

Didn't Urthash say that he went to the forge or he saw the forge? And the cathedral's a different location, isn't it? Did he not say that as part of his... He said that he went on a pilgrimage. He first found a place called Minderhall's Anvil, and that led him to go seek out the cathedral. Right. Isn't that the forge?

Minderhall's Anvil? Wouldn't that be? Maybe, maybe not. You're not quite sure. Right now, you don't have that information. In a traditional blacksmithing setup, the forge would probably be next to an anvil, so you could strike things on it, but this is magical giant shit, so who knows?

It would be a pain in the ass to have the anvil really far away from the horse. Yeah, it would be weird. Unless it's some sort of not a literal anvil. It's some sort of geographical location. Some kind of fucking metaphor. Oh, this is so cool. There's a lot of stuff there,

but you do not find any of the you don't find any of Lork's equipment or anything. However. What about the castle on a cloud? that the storm tyrant himself resides in a stronghold built upon a cloud that can soar through the sky. He's that bad guy from Super Mario 3 that throws down those spiky red turtles.

I would imagine he's slightly more dangerous. I would imagine non-magical characters are going to do great. Well, Pembroke has definitely heard tell of other flying cities, but not around here. It's pretty clear that it is. One of the ancient empires of Garund

before Starfall, I think, they had flying cities and people have been searching for their remnants. Can you do it as Pembroke? Yes. Well, my travels in the Grundy interior, I attempted to find evidence of these so-called floating cities

that they had in those days. One of the most prized relics that anyone has ever searched for. And I found little evidence apart from the anecdotal. But if this giant, if he has discovered similar techniques, this is troubling, troubling indeed. And I don't know how much Pembroke has told you. You guys have had a night together. Maybe you, did you share with them

what your original intention to coming to this area was? Oh, me? Yeah. Oh, yes. It's like, well, and he kind of lifts himself up. It's still like broken ribs. He's kind of like lifting himself up against the rocks. He says, well, initially I had come,

I had reached the end of a long and fulfilling career, and I had certain premonitions of my own demise, and I had always wanted to see the last resting place of the whispering tyrant. And so I made my way north, I left my post at the university, at the Arcanarium, and left, travelled north through the mountains. But then I happened across young Lorcair and another friend who is gone now. And he told me why he travelled. He told me something of all of you, and suddenly the opportunity to spend my remaining days in the pursuit of a great cause makes my sightseeing trip seem a little selfish and petty. And so, with what little time I have left, I should dedicate

it to you. I do hope to see the spire sometime, someday. But this is what is important now, I feel. And the thought of seeing a castle on a cloud must be just as exciting

that would be a rare and beautiful thing indeed if you continue looking through the documents that's pretty much all you know it seems like it is located somewhere within the vast range of the mind spins and the mind spins are huge unfortunately there are no clues as to the Flying Fortress's exact location. Well, presumably it can move regardless.

Right. But yeah, that is the information that you glean from all the stuff found in that room. Wow. There's a little bit of endgame stuff. I'm sorry, I can't remember. Were we able to pinpoint a location of the Frost Giant village? It's 100 or 200 miles south. 200 miles south, that's right.

Right. I'm sure with some more thought over the next couple days, you could do better with it. But you have a map leading you directly there. Okay. And during that day, Lork is in excruciating pain. I mean, I'm assuming you're having him be stabilized, right?

He's not going to continue to die because these things didn't heal. No, no. Are his stumps healing? His stumps are healing as best they can. He doesn't have infection. I don't know if Baron wants to cauterize them with his gun or not. Yeah. Between the magical healing that they give you and some food,

over the next couple of days you're going to gain your strength back, but your feet are gone. But he's stable. He's not dying. No, no, no. During that day, Lork. The torturers were very adamant on making sure you all stayed alive. Like those villagers had tons of non-lethal damage as well,

but they were alive. So he's regaining hit points, just not extremities. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And Pembroke and Lork and even Farazza, who we have not talked about, all gained experience points during that part of the journey. So Lork is just going to, during that day,

he's going to tell Baron, at least, and Della, if she's interested at all, in what his idea was, what Catrezor had told him, and what he thought he could do to end the murderous curse and he completely comes clean uh to baron sort of quietly and through a painful conversation literally and figuratively to tell him that he you know explaining to him the murder and that he is in fact a uh a criminal A criminal. Why did you feel at peace bringing those other three? Pembroke, he's a nice guy.

I don't know the gentleman who died. And I don't know the one that flew off. But why'd you feel okay roping them out and leaving us behind? Because the half-orc who died, he was very brave. A follower of Gorom, he almost sought death as a religion. He wanted it to happen.

And Pembroke, well... If you listened to two episodes previous, I went into some detail about why I was alright with all this. I told them eventually after a time about the curse

and they agreed to come Penbrook because he knew he was part of something greater and because he found or he saw a vision of his own death. And I hope it is not too soon, friend. We could use you.. We could use you.

These men could use you. And Lurk is also telling them how awesome he is. Telling Baron how awesome Pembroke is. And then, as for the mystery druid, he explains of this mystery druid that flew away

who said that she was destined to find the one or something like that she was destined to find the one or something like that who was going to turn the tide against the fight against the giants and she also knew of the curse and was willing to go through with it because she was a fearless creature and that that's all that he could describe and then he just said he felt as if he was walking you into certain death and he was too close to you to do it. I'd just gotten too close. Why do you want to keep on living

if you can't fight no more without any feet? How can we get you back into the fight if you want to? Well, now it's revenge. There must be some way to take out this monster who killed... Oh, my God. Orphos.

Right in front of my eyes. Who took my feet. He did take my feet, right? That was him. No, Gristlecrack. Oh, it was Gristlecrack. That's right. Yeah, I guess...

Do you tell Lork that you killed Gristlecrack? That could be all in that day yeah yeah we definitely tell her you talk about this giant yeah I'll tell him what happened to my feet

and Sir Will can say I felled the beast yeah oh my god he stabbed her in the head with a lance Sir Will I stabbed her in the head with a lance

somebody knocked her prone I think Della did blade lash or something I tripped her yeah tripped her and then Sir Will impaled did blade lash or something. I tripped her. Yeah. That was such a cool spell. And then Sir Will impaled her head.

Yeah. Yeah. So just, I love this idea of staying here for a day because it does give us an opportunity to really kind of exchange all these stories. But yeah, from a standpoint of Lork realized that he was making an emotional decision and it was not the right decision. And he apologizes and realizes that he was, he thought that he was being wise, but he was being foolish. Well, you might be more of a threat to our life

now that you don't have any feet to move with than you were before. No, this is what I'm saying, mate mate because someone tell me what the plan is i mean we're going to like go out and then like we'll have to we'll have like a little little vacation home here at the top of this fucking tower and keep coming back and taking care of this lot i mean is that we're going to do i mean it seems like a huge risk to take no offense what do you want do you want to do? None taken. No, no, no, mate. I mean, you're right. No, this is brilliant. I mean, look, I mean, we've got, you know,

a doddering old man who may not, won't be able to stand up for probably about a week by the looks of him. We've got a slightly less old man who probably will never stand up again. We've got a pair of pointless peasants. And one person in this entire group who might have been of some use looks like he fucking starved to death about a week ago. So one person in this entire group who might have been

of some use looks like he fucking starved to death about a week ago. So no, this is great. This is perfect. Fucking hell. And he just walks away.

He walks out of the shelter. Oh, man. And like Ymir is holding Aram back because Aram is like trying to rouse himself talking about his dead father like that.

Yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways, Baron, and in some ways, Della, you guys are the only people that know everybody. Well, you don't know Pembroke, but you know Lork and Nestor just as well. Lork doesn't really know Nestor. He's met him, but only for a day. Does Pembroke feel confident, at least now with his spellbook, that he could guard Lork and the two people from danger. Yeah, I think he does need his staff.

Yeah. But even without that, I think he... Yeah. He could manage. He could manage, yeah. All right, so... So you still want Del to do the scouting mission? Yeah, can we do a flyover during the day, invisible fly over try just to see movements if there's uh specific patrols of people seem to be looking actively in this area for the missing

prisoners and the intruders and alternate entrances to any building around right and to the exact location of the boss ah okay when you get to the best time to come upon him as a surprise. Right. Right. He's sleeping. All his vulnerabilities and... His weaknesses to whatever energies. Just let us know. Okay. Hold on. That's a lot of info. Take your time.

There's no rush. How should I best disseminate this? There's no rush. All right. So you do your, boom, invisible flyover. Eight minutes now instead of seven. You see all the same entrances that you saw before there is a separate entrance to that

building in the north, there's the main entrance there's the side entrance where Nestor peeked in and then there's the entrance where you snuck into that tower on the far south tower you see that there are more guards placed at the gate

what was just four stone giants before looks to be six or so and then there are more guards placed at the gate. What was just four stone giants before looks to be six or so. And then there are sentries along the gate as well. The gate into the plateau. Yeah, the gate into the steps that lead up to the cathedral. You definitely see more activity

from just beyond, like below. You do not see any more activity outside just beyond, like below. You do not see any more activity outside of the cathedral per se. There are more guards stationed to make sure no one gets in that isn't supposed to be there. But you don't see any more, at least outside, any more new dangers other than the obvious. Oh, can I say something else while this is going on? Sure. I think that there is something that Lork can do to be valuable, at least in a temporary way, to Nestor.

While Nestor is saying this stuff about, like, why are we going to take care of these people and everything, Lork completely agrees. He completely gets it from a leadership standpoint from a military standpoint it's like yes you want to protect your own but he's not we're not on the same team really you know right and so he gets it but he's gonna when he can muster up the strength to talk about it he's just gonna go into detail with nest who's gonna pull him over and identifying nestor as like an assassin slash killer, knowing why he was in jail, knowing that he killed that guard with point blank precision and had no wasted movement. He is going to tell him in great detail because Lork is also a giant hunter.

It is his favorite enemy. He's going to tell him in great detail about Orathash and exactly what he wears, how he moves, what his body is like, what his armor is like, where his weaknesses are, all that kind of stuff. And say, you know, kill him for me, friend. If you kill him for me, I'm happy to die up here. So, yeah, I think that he's just kind of giving him all the intel that he has about this enemy. About Orthosh? Orthosh, yeah. Because Lork was in the room with him a few times.

They were able to study him. Exactly. So you're giving him as much intel as possible. So we're exchanging favorite enemy to studied target, mechanically. How do you respond to that, Nestor? He's on his hunches, listening to him, nodding. He's like, listen, mate, I appreciate the thought,

but it takes me a fraction of a second to learn a lot more than what you just told me right now. And, you know, I appreciate what you've done in your career, storied as it may be. But right now, you're a fucking hanker, mate.

You're a fucking liability. All right, then just put me down here. I may. He stands up and walks away. Oh, lurking master! Heading downstairs? Well, I mean, are we doing the next day? Yeah. Next day. Get your con and your level and your con back and Nestor. Heading downstairs? Well, I mean, are we doing the next day? Yeah.

Next day. Get your con and your level and your con back and hit points. Healing spells. And then the next day, you wish Pembroke and Lork and Aram and Ymir luck. Nestor doesn't, but Sir Will definitely does. Right. If you die, don't give away opposition. Does anyone need healing before I can burn my two Cure the Wounds spells?

I think we're all good. All right. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not. So if you want to burn your spells for the day. Five. We could do it later. Five. So ten for you.

Cool. Sweet. And then we go to bed. Then you go to bed. Do we have to roll saves the next morning? Yes. Or no. You said. You have to roll save every single day until you remove the disease.

And then, yeah. But that will be to see if it happens the following day. So, Nestor, Della, and Lexington, roll a DC 15 Fortitude save. Scratching first. Lexington roll a DC 15 fortitude save. Scratching first.

Lexington makes it. Della makes it. Fail. All right, so this is the day that you're... So I'm okay today and then tomorrow. Right? Yes. Yeah, the onset is one

day. So yesterday's save allowed you to... I forgot to do Yes, the onset is one day Yesterday's save allowed you to I forgot to do a save in there Let's just move on Tomorrow you're going to be in Troublemaster And Deli will start fresh Meanwhile, Sir Will and Baron and Umla Are like, when is it going to hit us?

Day three, I think So you go downstairs Are you doing some stealth and listening? Talk to me. I think the plan is to go to that third door, right? The door of the third tower and listen. Yep. But we're now moving in force.

The four of us are moving. Lexington, Will, Nestor, Baron, and Della. And Umlo. Is Umlo going to stay? Are his hit points all the way back up? Yeah, he'll come. Okay. And we go and I'm low. Is I'm going to stay? Is it, are his points all the way back up? Yeah, he's yeah,

he'll come. Okay. Yeah. And we go down to that door where we heard raucous behavior before. Okay. You just go through all the rooms. Well, I mean,

we, we, yeah, we, so we're not going to the sanctuary. You want to go to the other building? We want to check the door. All right.

Yeah. I mean, that's the one that we can check without ever going outside. All your scouting missions saw were that there were more guards, not that there were alternate means of ingress or egress. And we don't know who might have repopulated this tower, so we're obviously taking it slowly. Della and, well, Baron, well, whoever.

The stealthiest of us will scout ahead. All right. Nestor, roll one stealth check. 28. You sneak down that first set of steps into the room, the Inquisition room, and all you see is Razzmatazz, who they've

now explained to you at length who he is. Is it worth using the scroll of Charm Monster? No. No. Pembroke can come down when he's ready and cast it.

Okay. Brings everybody down. Next level. Roll a stealth check. 24. You go down into that room with the bed and the tables Nobody's in there But someone has been in there There's evidence

Are the bodies cleared up? This is just the bedroom The next room is the one with the bodies Anything, any evidence of Pembroke's staff or Lurk's stuff? You don't see anything Alright, stealth for the next level 30 any evidence of Pembroke staff or lurk stuff. You don't see anything. Alright, stealth for the next level.

Uh, 30. 30. Go down there. Tiptoe. Go make a sound. All the bodies are gone. Surrog and the five rucks are gone. And when you go down to the next level, that's where you are on your maps. Tharg Three Eyes

is gone as well. Okay. Still stinks of shit. Look at the size of that room. Nester, Umlo, Baron, Della, Sir Will. You make your way back towards the chapter house?

Up to the north. Yeah. Okay. Stealth check, Nestor. 21. Best perception? 25. 25. 27.

Don't hear anything on the other side of the door. You guys enter that room where all the boxes and crates and that throne where Baron felt the presence of evil all over him. And you guys cross. The bodies of those Nirmatha soldiers

are still there. At least they haven't been cleaned up yet. And then you guys go up to that double doors on the north east portion. And what do you want to do? Listen at the door. Okay, perception.

Can we all do it? Uh, sure. Uh, 22. 19. 19. 23. 22 19 23 It's morning You hear like Faint sounds of something But nothing

Nothing on the exact Opposite of the same situation As before you hear sounds Coming from the farther What sounds? Grumbling, giant sounds Banging. Banging.

Steady banging or unpredictable banging? Unpredictable banging. Like sex or actual banging? Like carpentry. All right. Okay. It's building a fort. Kick the door open.

Yeah. Kick it in! Kick it in! Let's open it. Stealth? Stealth on the door open? All right, so you go into that next room, which is a small little antechamber

leading to the other room, which sounds very large. And roll a perception. Whoever's at the door. 17. 27. 18. 26.

All right, Baron. You recognize these sounds because it sounds like the sounds you grew up with. Sounds of merriment, loud, raucous behavior, banging on tables, drinking. This is definitely the way to go. I should definitely burst into this room. It is a 5'10'10, 15 20 foot wide

Door Is anybody gonna take a Gentleman's peek I would actually like to take a peek Yeah it's interesting that way Alright Roll a stealth check When he opens the door

Sir Will goes For Hymery! And then runs the other way And then runs the other way. And then runs the other way. Fuck! 28. 28. You open the door and you see, I mean, to the other...

It's really loud. That was a terrible stealth check Yeah You can see all the way to the other side of the room I mean, what is the distance we're talking here? Oh, 115 feet to just the other side of the room You see a set of double doors directly to your left and ahead Another set of double doors directly to your left and ahead, another set of double doors directly to your right and ahead, and huge tables filling the room.

On the far side of one of the tables, you see two ogres arm-wrestling and drinking. Rough wooden benches sit alongside huge feasting tables the size of river rafts, stained black with beer and blood. Atop the table lie greasy

piles of chipped wooden bowls of congealed stew. You can see bushels of apples, scorched vegetables, dirty cutlery, and cracked bones of animals. You don't even know what the hell they're eating. The floors are equally filthy. You look down, you see just littered with rotting straw, food scraps.

Rats are running back and forth, doing the best they can to scavenge whatever these monsters have left behind. Puddles of slop and shit. You see, on the far side of the room to your right, recesses in the chamber that coincides with Della's sort of view from above of the shape of this room. With iron cauldrons suspended by thick chains just simmering above fires. They're cooking something. Massive hearths of soot blackened stone. You see three huge hog heads standing against the western wall.

Right when you open the door, you just feel a wave of heat and sweaty BO stank come like smack you in the face feeded stew stale beer probably reminds you of home Nestor and just little rats running around your feet I mean you don't have long to

look in here you know that you could be seen at any moment especially with that loud crew of idiots behind you. But you see two ogres arm wrestling over a beer. When you see that cauldron, you see a hill giant standing next to that cauldron, cooking it.

You look down the other end of the room and you see another giant standing between one of the, it's like one, two, three, four, five, six of these long tables. You see another huge giant, one you have not faced before. It appears to be a frost giant. Wow, so cool.

Standing there, and then all the way on the other side of the room are the doors leading out. So, Della, if you're peeking over his shoulder looking in, you realize that that whole building you saw was one room. Now, there are exactly, or like a grog hall, kind of looks like a beer garden. There's two, like I said, directly across from where Nestor looks in, there's a set of double doors. And then to the right of that, another set of double doors, and then you see one, two small doors on the middle north side of the room as well.

An enormous chamber. You see four enemies and five of you. What do you do? So, yeah, Nestor turns and says, well, I'm game. What do you do? So, yeah, Nesta turns and says, well, I'm game. What do you think?

For Highbury. For Highbury indeed, mate. You guys walking? Yeah. Do you have a plan of action? Is, like, someone just going to go running across and, like, flank out? Or are you just going to start bunching in? Or are you just going to go in and knock heads?

Heavy crossbow loaded. Giant's pain. Well, yeah, I would say... Because Nestor could probably stealth in and get into position. Right, I think our ranged characters... Yeah, I could vanish you. And you could get yourself into position. Yeah, okay.

I was thinking of just... Just marching in in be like any of you want to die first how how how how yeah you know i mean that's kind of fun too well for sir will there's no difference like at some point he's just gonna have to make a big entrance there's no other way around it so well then let's make the big entrance. I say we just go in. Yeah. Well, I mean, the one bonus of vanishing

is you get that early sneak attack damage. I would definitely vanish yourself and then fire one off. I'll vanish you after we announce our presence. Baron says to the group, we got to take that frost giant alive so we can know exactly where they're sending the next group to be trained.

I like it. I would also suggest that you vanish, that you ready an action to vanish, Nestor, the second anyone knows we're here. So that you don't have to roll initiative for it. Great. I'll do that. So you guys walk into the room. King, open the door. Who says what?

I say, my friends and I have come here to chew bubble gum and to kill big stupid smelly bastards. And we're all out of bubble gum. Two ogres stop what they're doing. Look at you. The hill giant that's cooking in the northern part turns

around and the frost giant pulls out a great axe. But behind you, in one of the alcoves to the south, you see a hill giant starting to wrench one of the cauldrons with cook fire, with, like, burning hot water, trying to wrench it from position to arm it up and throw at you guys. to wrench it from position to arm it up and throw it you guys. For Highbury!

This is going to be an insane combat next week! For Highbury! Highbury! Fuck you, Giants! Outro Music